Silica gels, usually referred to as xerogels in the dried form, are versatile materials for industrial purposes and find uses, particularly in the milled and/or micronised state in which controlled particle size distributions can be produced, as a matting agent in paint and lacquer systems.
It is common for paints and varnishes to be structured by the incorporation of a thixotropic medium. Such paints and varnishes can have the advantages of being dripless, easy to apply, prevent pigment settlement and can be put on vertical surfaces at high film thickness without sagging.
Resins prepared from alkyds and polyamides are frequently used as the main binder component in thixotropic alkyd coatings and thixotropic alkyd resins are commercially manufactured by, for example, Cray Valley Products under the name of Gelkyds.
The degree of thixotropy present in a paint or varnish can be controlled by the level of thixotropic alkyds utilised. They can be incorporated on their own or in combination with a conventional liquid resin to give complete formulation flexibility. The range of the resultant paints and varnishes can therefore span from highly structured (dripless) to only lightly structured (gel or viscous liquid).
It is often desirable to produce thixotropic paints or varnishes in matt, semi-matt or eggshell finishes, by the incorporation of a suitable silica. Unfortunately, this causes partial or total loss of the thixotropy depending upon the type of silica which is used.
Some silicas, such as Gasil 200 (obtainable from Joseph Crosfield & Sons) prove to have no significant negative effects on thixotropy but, in other respects they are not suitable as matting agents. In contrast, silicas based upon gel technology such as HP200 series products (obtainable from Joseph Crosfield & Sons) prove to be good matting agents but adversely affect the thixotropy.
Up to now two solutions have been proposed which can be summarised as follows.
As a first solution, the matting agent is a standard silica and the thixotropic system is formulated to minimize negative interactions. Thixotropic alkyds manufacturers have used this solution by eliminating the random nature of the hydrogen bonding present in conventional thixotropic alkyd resins and produced so-called Super-Gelkyds which are tolerant to polar groups. However such products have drawbacks in terms of delivery and handling since they have non melting characteristics and cannot be supplied in mobile form in tankers. These products can also be sensitive to high shear rates.
As a second solution, instead of reformulating the thixotropic system, the matting agent is modified in order to minimize its interactions with the thixotropic system. EP-A-442325 (Grace Gmbh) describes a silica flatting agent which is purported to be used in thixotropic polyamide-modified alkyd resins with no negative effect on their thixotropic behaviour. This is allegedly achieved by adding 1 to 25% by weight of a polyol to a silica. This solution therefore requires an additional processing step.
Thus, there is a need for a silica which exhibits good matting properties whilst not adversely affecting the thixotropic nature of the thixotropic system to which it is added.
It is therefore a first goal of the present invention to provide a silica with good matting properties that does not adversely affect the thixotropic behaviour of thixotropic paints and lacquers based on polyamide-modified alkyd resins.
It is a second goal of the present invention to provide a process for manufacturing such silica.
It is a third goal of the present invention to provide thixotropic paints and lacquers based on polyamide-modified alkyd resins with a silica matting agent.
It has now been found that a silica with a specific pore size distribution and with a specific matting efficiency can be used as a matting agent in thixotropic paints and lacquers based on polyamide-modified alkyd resins without adversely affecting the thixotropic behaviour of the system.